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Elephant Engineers

An interview with Rob Pringle, a graduate student in ecology at Stanford University. Pringle authored a paper in the Ecological Society of America’s January 2008 edition of Ecology. While working at the Mpala Research Center in Kenya, East Africa, Pringle found that geckos were thriving in areas where elephants had torn up trees and shrubs. The resulting crevices offered the lizards hiding places. In contrast, undamaged areas harbored scarcely any geckos. By looking at such ‘ecosystem engineering,’ Pringle and his collaborators hope to gain a better understanding of how the African savanna functions.

Excellent idea. Well thought questions. Format is clean and to the point. Audio production of phone interview does not seem to be broadcast quality however. Would recomend looking into a Telos System ONE hybrid telco line interface. I believe its what NPR uses. (~$700)

Nice interview Rob and also very nice project. As both a marine and terrestrial conservation ecologist I can completely understand the dilemma that you seem to be in when you stated that you find it difficult to understand where ecology meets conservation. I was in the same boat. However, I always had the knowledge that I would make the science of ecology meet the science and passion for conservation. I was reading Captain Paul Watson’s of the Sea Shepherd Society biography Ocean Warrior when he stated “that there is no use understanding the natural world around us if we do not preserve it”.

I think that statement goes a long way, in so far as explaining a fundamental principle that I follow. That is, we as ecologists describe to the best of our scientific knowledge at the time (which may be incorrect) what we believe relationships among species in an ecosystem are. However, if in the short term or long term future these species and the ecosystems described are gone, then the point of originally explaining these relationships may be futile and irrelevant. This I believe makes us as ecologists also irrelevant in the long term if we do not put into practice in 2008 the simple rule that “we describe to understand and preserve”.

The statement is definitely worth giving some time to, and putting it into practice the next time we are out there collecting data to explain species relationships and ecosystem processes

Anyway that’s my and many other ecologists positions that I have had the pleasure to talk to.

Nice interview Rob and also very nice project. As both a marine and terrestrial conservation ecologist I can completely understand the dilemma that you seem to be in when you stated that you find it difficult to understand where ecology meets conservation. I was in the same boat. However, I always had the knowledge that I would make the science of ecology meet the science and passion for conservation. I was reading Captain Paul Watson’s of the Sea Shepherd Society biography Ocean Warrior when he stated “that there is no use understanding the natural world around us if we do not preserve it”.

I think that statement goes a long way, in so far as explaining a fundamental principle that I follow. That is, we as ecologists describe to the best of our scientific knowledge at the time (which may be incorrect) what we believe relationships among species in an ecosystem are. However, if in the short term or long term future these species and the ecosystems described are gone, then the point of originally explaining these relationships may be futile and irrelevant. This I believe makes us as ecologists also irrelevant in the long term if we do not put into practice in 2008 the simple rule that “we describe to understand and preserve”.

The statement is definitely worth giving some time to, and putting it into practice the next time we are out there collecting data to explain species relationships and ecosystem processes

Anyway that’s my and many other ecologists positions that I have had the pleasure to talk to.